I planted a vegetable garden today.\u00a0 Late August is not a traditional garden-planting time in Hardiness Zone 7. I recognize that.\u00a0 But yesterday when I went to the local five and dime (yes, we still have one) to get a new nightlight for the bathroom, they had Brussels Sprout sets out, and I bit.<\/p>\n
For the last several years I have relied on the all-volunteer vegetable garden.\u00a0 Tomatoes in particular have been quite prolific, popping up in some odd places, but producing good quantities of fruit late in the summer.\u00a0 Squashes of various sorts, too.\u00a0 This year we had cilantro and tomatoes early on, but they didn\u2019t make it.\u00a0 The weeds grew up and choked them.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s something that may turn into a pumpkin inching out into the lawn in back.\u00a0 Whatever it is, it\u2019s about the size of a softball, and growing every day.<\/p>\n
When I got back home with my nightlight and the three Brussels Sprout seedlings, I wasn\u2019t sure what I would do with them.\u00a0 There are no prepared vegetable beds in my yard.\u00a0 Our very small yard is shared out among grass, liriope, azaleas, and weeds. \u00a0In the end, that one impulse purchase, something less than $3, had me raking and forking and digging and pulling and turning and hunting for the mosquito repellent and the garden hose nozzle for quite a while this afternoon. \u00a0I was sweaty and uncomfortable, but now I feel greatly and delightfully\u00a0restored.<\/p>\n
The book of Genesis sends some decidedly mixed messages about gardening.\u00a0 On the one hand, gardening seems to be humanity\u2019s primary vocation.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Gen. 2:15\u00a0 The LORD God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On the other hand, the punishment for disobedience to God is, pretty much, more gardening.\u00a0 It\u2019s actually the garden soil, not Adam who is cursed, but still,<\/p>\n
Gen. 3:17 cursed is the ground because of you;
\nin pain you will eat from it
\nevery day of your life.
\nGen. 3:18 Weeds and thistles will grow for you,
\neven as you eat the field\u2019s plants;
\nGen. 3:19 by the sweat of your face
\nyou will eat bread\u2014
\nuntil you return to the fertile land,
\nsince from it you were taken;
\nyou are soil,
\nto the soil you will return.\u201d<\/p>\nGen. 3:23 So GOD expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they\u2019d been made.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Later on when the prototypical gardener, Cain, comes up against the prototypical herder, Abel, it\u2019s the gardener who loses out and the garden soil that once again bears the brunt of the punishment.\u00a0 God tells Abel,<\/p>\n
Gen. 4:12 \u00a0“When you farm the fertile land, it will no longer grow anything for you, and you will become a roving nomad on the earth.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Most of the work I put in this afternoon was an effort to make good soil.\u00a0 Jesus had a thing or two to say about the importance of good soil.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s why it\u2019s so satisfying to work in the garden.<\/p>\n
Now, I wonder how lucky I\u2019m going to be with these Brussels Sprouts? \u00a0I’ve given them the best soil I can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I planted a vegetable garden today.\u00a0 Late August is not a traditional garden-planting time in Hardiness Zone 7. I recognize that.\u00a0 But yesterday when I went to the local five and dime (yes, we still have one) to get a new nightlight for the bathroom, they had Brussels Sprout sets out, and I bit. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3330"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3336,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions\/3336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toulmin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}